Customs audit finds security risks

AUSTRALIAN Customs staff will be more closely monitored in the workplace after an audit of the national service highlighted a risk of theft.

An Auditor-General's report probing operations of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service across 2011/12 found that seized goods destined for destruction were in some cases not properly secured.

At two of the service's facilities visited by auditors, detained goods stores could be accessed by staff for up to one month "and the goods were not re-verified before destruction", said the report released on Wednesday.

"In this circumstance, there was a risk that the goods could be stolen and any discrepancy is unlikely to be identified as those goods were not re-verified as being complete prior to destruction," the report says.

The finding meant the service had failed to implement a three-year-old recommendation that lockable containers be used to store items seized for destruction.

Weapons, firearms, tobacco and drugs comprised 90 per cent of the goods seized by the service during the audit period.

The service welcomed the audit and agreed to recommendations which included monitoring staff, increasing the use of CCTV and improving the management of detained goods.